Gord Holder, Postmedia Network

Jan 13, 2017

, Last Updated: 10:59 PM ET

OTTAWA — In the mind of Patrick Chan, the highlight of Michelle Kwan’s star-studded figure skating career wasn’t either her five world titles or two Olympic medals, but rather her nine U.S. women’s championships.

Coincidentally, Chan could match not only Kwan’s total, but also the Canadian-record total of nine national men’s crowns set more than eight decades ago by Montgomery Wilson if he can deliver two worthy on-ice performances in the 2017 Canadian Tire National Skating Championships at TD Place arena in Ottawa.

“It is a goal,” Chan said during a Friday afternoon teleconference. “I don’t like focusing, generally, on results, on wins and the records, but there’s something about being in Canada and winning at home that’s extremely special.

“I didn’t really appreciate that earlier on in my career, it’s very special.”

Now 26, Chan has won the past eight nationals in which he has competed, the lone exception being 2015, when the skater who was born in Ottawa and grew up in Toronto was midway through a season-long hiatus. Toronto’s Nam Nguyen was senior men’s champion that year.

Like Canadian, world and Olympic ice dance champions Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir, who took a two-year break after the Sochi Winter Games, Chan said he had to reacquire a taste for competition.

He described his reintroduction to that environment as a shock to the system and allowed that he was still building up his confidence, something that sounded a tad unusual coming from an athlete whose résumé comprises not only those eight previous national titles, but also three world gold medals and 2014 Olympic individual and team silvers.

“As you get older, I think it’s also different,” Chan said. “Your mentality is different, you’re physically different than you were when you were younger.

“You almost have to learn again how to compete, how to train (in a way) that’s going to be optimal for your current physical situation and mental situation.”

To that end, Chan has recently been working with a sports psychologist, something new for him, but just one of several changes for 2016-17 that also included relocating his training base to Canton, Mich., and joining coaches Marina Soueva, Oleg Epstein and Johnny Johns. His previous coach, Kathy Johnson, announced in August that she would no longer be working with him.

It’s something of a “leaving no stone unturned” tactic, Chan explained, and something well worth trying at this point in his skating career. He cited the example of finding a better way to navigate the 45-minute wait between the pre-competition warm-up and being the last performer in a particular wave of skaters.

“Whether it helps, whether it doesn’t help, that’s what Marina said. She said, ‘Try it, go for it.’ She suggested it,” Chan said. “I’m really up to any suggestions at this point to keep up with the other skaters. I really need to look at every angle.”

Chan’s fall season featured some noticeable peaks and valleys, including firsts in both his Grand Prix competitions (Skate Canada, Cup of China) and, prior to that, a second at the Finlandia Trophy senior event, but a puzzling fifth in the Grand Prix final in Marseille in December.

He was second after the short program in that competition, but struggled to just fifth place in the free skate even though he successfully performed a quadruple Salchow jump that he had been integrating into his routine.

Now it’s back to Ottawa, where Chan finished seventh behind winner Jeffrey Buttle in his first senior national competition at the age of 15. He improved two spots, still behind Buttle, at Halifax in 2007, then started his string of Canadian championships, with the eighth added a year ago back in Nova Scotia’s capital. He constructed a 25-point lead after the short program and he tacked another 34 points onto that advantage to finish well ahead of B.C. skaters Liam Firus and Kevin Reynolds and Nguyen.

“For me, it’s a huge bonus because I love my country and I love competing for my country,” Chan said, “so, if I can set a special record like that on home turf, that goes a long way for my personal gratification and personal challenge.”

The 2017 nationals will feature novice and junior competition from Monday through Thursday, with senior skaters in the spotlight on Friday and Saturday.